Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Gotta love birthdays and old pictures. This is a 1957ish picture of Frank Peters (terry's dad, if you can't tell), when he first joined the military when he was just 17. He tells the story that he put weights in his pant legs because he wasn't going to meet the weight requirement to join the military.

Happy 67th Papa Frank.

Frank and Donna enjoying a chat, Michelle popping into the pic, Ottawa 2005.

Friday, January 26, 2007

I thought everyone came from a big family. Really. I had only one brother and one sister. But my mom and dad had so many sisters and brothers, I just thought that everyone had as many aunts, uncles and cousins as I did.

Meet my mom's family THE BOUDREAUS (1941)

Honest. This is my grandparents and their 16 children. My mom, was 12 when this picture was taken. She is the 4 youngest. You can see her head is in between my grandparents heads, and behind my uncle Romay, the young boy in between my grandparents. My mom's older sister by 2 years (the next in line as far as siblings) was my Aunt Angeline, and she is the farthest girl on the left. She was extremely tall and my mom told the funniest stories about my Aunt Angeline. My mom (Aurore) was extremely jealous of Angeline, because she was older and got to do more, and also because she was so tall. Angeline was so tall, she didn't get many hand me downs, and alot of her things (Clothing) were bought new, or given from other families. My mom always had hand me downs. Grounds for jealousy, I guess. This family was extremely close, and to this day all keep in touch on a regular basis. Although there are only 5 sisters left.

Meet the Boudreaus (1976) Our only family reunion. Of all the family members, only my grandfather had passed away, and that was in 1958.

My mom is the second woman from the left, and my tall Aunt Angeline is next to her on her left.

So... that is 16 on my mom's side... now meet my Dad's family

The ADMONDS

Yes, another big family. There is one person missing from this picture. My uncle Leo because this picture was taken at his funeral. He died fairly young from cancer. This picture was in about 1950. My dad... is the center man, in the back row, sort of framed in the window. Sooo..... that is 11 aunts and uncles on my Dads' side.

In total, I had at one point 27 "blood" aunts/uncles. Every one of them were married, and most had at least 3 kids, with some on both sides having 6 to 7. That gives me over 200 first cousins and countless second cousins, when you add up both sides.

Interesting tidbit.... Kingston "King of Donair". The owner, Jean Boulos. Best smelling man in Kingston. Did you know he was a lawyer in Lebanon. Imagine. I had a great conversation with him on Saturday, and its pretty darn amazing. He makes the best pizzas and donairs in the world, and he was a lawyer. I commented on how hard he works and how great his restaurant is, and I asked if he loved what he does now and guess what he said. NO... not one bit. He is here, in Canada, working 12 to 14 hours a day, for his kids. Heres the scoop. He loves Lebanon, he loves his life there. He is christian and lived amongst all religions, but when he was 21, the Serians killed his father, and Jean didn't shut up about it. He talked too much, and it became dangerous for him to stay there. He is here because its not safe for his family there. He never worked in Lebanon, he didn't have to. He is sure making up for it now. Just thought you would like to know that. We are pretty lucky to be Canadian.

Mick... working hard as the RA of Burke House. Has her 33 little puppies she takes care of, and her several shifts a week on duty patrolling the halls of three houses which are all connected. Now she has applied for a Senior Residence Assistance, which is a lot more responsibility. A bit more money, but a bigger room, apparently. That will give her much more space to collect lots more crap to drag home each year... ugh... kidding, Mick. Well, maybe. Besides the job part of Antigonish, Michelle is studying hard and enjoying her classes. French was a bit scary to start with but the eccentric teacher of first term, and the nostalgic characteristics of her second term teacher have won her over to the "loving" french side again. Historys of all discriptions are also a great experience, and she is thriving on the psyc courses too.

Stephanie... starting to dream of her Masters/Phd. Toying with University of Toronto and being woed by UNB. She has her mitts on a sock knitting machine. Can you believe that. and it works. Thanks to her amazing dad who can build and perfect 1883 metal knitting machine parts. She is totally excited about this contraption and is going to knit some socks for her dear old grandfather who is very picky about his socks. She also has designed a cool scarf pattern for knitting, and has set her goal on designing 4 more patterns, so she can sell them on the web, and one freebe for www.knitty.com to use free advertising for her. She has lots to say on her studies at UNB if you go to her blog which you will find in my favorite blogs to go to. I can't possibly tell you all her school news.

My weekend... I will be purging more stuff from the house, starting with the computer stand... Anyone interested in the Secrets of Windows 3.1, or Windows 95 secrets. I have no less than 6 books on old windows... time for the Blue bin... stay tuned... I plan on keeping you all posted on my purging. How exciting. I am also starting to scan and compile some interesting history pictures of my family. Only because I have nothing exciting to blog other than my history.

Say no Christine... Burke is going to get fired anyway. He was nasty to George, and we aren't allowed to do those things... Burke is on his way out....

Friday, January 19, 2007

The WeatherFor two days our weather network has been predicting a weather BOMB to hit the east coast. That means to me... no school for me, tons of snow, and the in ability to go out for days... Well, that's what happened the last time we had a weather bomb, which we fondly call "White Juan".Well, we have had a bomb, but its rain.. rain.. rain. That doesn't stop school from happening, it doesn't trap you in your house for 3 days, so you can't go out. It doesn't make you feel all warm and cozy with the only activity you can do is snuggle under a blanket and read or snooze. Those are all my fond memories of White Juan. Rain.. it flattens your hair, it fills up our ditch which then threatens our basement... it makes you cold when you look out the window and it certainly doesn't cancel school. It make all the recesses indoor recesses... which feels like you have just trapped 500 buzzing bees into a small box, just whirling and vibrating to get out!!! ugh... Weather BOMB... weather fizzle.

My BlogI have a counter now on my blog. I think that is too cool. I have had 52 hits so far, and no comments. So I looked at my settings and it doesn't allow anyone to comment if your not a blogger.... but i fixed that. now anyone can comment. Not that you have to, but now you can if you want to. Or better yet... start your own blog... it a neat way to communicate.

My kidsMick and Scott are off to a hockey game in Antigonish tonight to watch a "bulldogs" game. Andrew Maxwell is playing in it, and Cricket, Neil and Lindsay will be there to watch so Mick will get a little visit from home. Grampa got a nice parcel from Michelle to day with a pair of light jogging pants and a cd of audiobooks stories. Oh, and two nice dog bones for Mollie. Or for Grampa, we are not sure. Stephanie is in the middle of MY weather BOMB. Tons of snow since the middle of the night. They have had schools cancelled, buses taken off the road and malls closed. I am thoroughly jealous... speaking of stephanie... Stephanie has a new boyfriend... who is really an old friend... turned new boyfriend. Sean and Stephanie have been friends for at least 4 years ( I think) and roommates, on and off, for at least 3 years and now have decided to try out the dating twist on things. I am very happy for Stephanie and a little scared for Sean!! I thought I had a picture of the two of them on my couch at Christmas but I can't find it on my camera. How lucky am I to have two really cool kids but now I have two really awesome boyfriend kids.. I am not sure what ya call them... but I am happy with the name "boyfriend kids".

Grey's AnatomyThat was an awesome show. They are great actors. I couldn't write about it last night. I was too emotional. Oh, poor George. and man oh man.. Izzy can't seem to do anything right. But she did have the last word. Christina's last sentence of the show broke my heart. "Welcome to my Club, George, the "Dead Dad Club" I am so sorry your in my club." Sounds gross to those who haven't lost a parent, but truly if you haven't lost your mom or your dad (mom, in my case) you have absolutely no idea how if feels. Those who have experienced that lost share a bond. Expecially when you lose them when you are young. Well, maybe age has nothing to do with it, I don't know. I think I was too young (about the same age as George).

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Its been a long weekend for me.. as I wasn't at work on Friday. Have a rendez vous with my Dr. from Halifax. He isn't happy with my scars from last years surgery, and therefore he has decided that the first treatment for scarring wasn't successful, so he tried steriod injections. 5 of them over one inch of scarring. Just to see if it makes a difference... ugh. It was somewhat painful plus he has killed my chases of qualifying for the olympics in upcoming trials. I have mixed feelings on whether I want these injections to work or not. On the upside, they will soften and flatten my otherwise ropelike scarring and they will stop itching. On the downside... if he used 5 injections in a one inch distance, that would be ... uh... over 20 inches of scar.... way too many injections.After that rendez vous, the rest of the day was a lot of fun. Terry and I went in a few furniture stores looking for a chair that would suit our livingroom and also suit dad's height. We picked out one at each store we were at and found the best deal and a suitable chair at Sears. It arrives this week. Costco was fun too, and then home.Saturday was a busy day, cleaning up the junk in the house. Five boxes are full, and out in the garage, ready to get rid of via Friendly Neighbours, yardsale, or Diabetic Association, whichever one we can arrange first. That was 5 boxes, just from our laundry room/storage room. We are planning on amalimating 3 computers from downstairs, into one, which will free up some space in the spareroom (we call Scott's room). I have decided and announced to Terry, that we no longer need our collection of information books (each 2 inches thick) on Windows 95, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 for Dummies, and so on. These books come second hand to us from Terry's uncle, who has probably read every one of them. Terry has never cracked the binding on any of them, but yet they are on display for anyone to use, if the need to. We have at least 4 feet wide of these lovely books and old programs, games etc in books across our Computer stand. Needless to day, BLUEBOX for them all. My craft room, will be overhauled and rearranged starting Monday night. That is the plan, anyway.Saturday night was a fantastic dinner out with several friends. A yummy meal, great laughs and a few games of "Pass the Ace" which I did terrible at, for the first game, and not much better the second. But a bag of laughs just the same.

SUNDAY Afternoon SnoozeOK, is that not heaven or what. Some days you just have to have a snooze. Seems like we were all catching a few.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Well, Grey's Anatomy means popcorn and chocolate. Period. I don't care about diets or new eating plans, some things are sacred. Tonight is no except.

Good show, but I am hoping things will happen in the Part 2. O'Malley... coming to his senses about Torres. A kick of reality can do that. I remember that feeling...knowing... after my mom's cancer surgery. There's no way to describe it and I don't know if he is a good actor, or I just have vivid memories of my own experience, but he brought me to the big gulping tears when he realized the truth about his dad. Good news about the pee though...never give up, they call that hope. Who didn't see it coming between Addison and Alex... oh, what next. I don't suppose anyone will take my bet that Issie is going to pay the surgery for the back surgery for the spunky spit fire. Oh, by the way..... I snore too. Do you think now that Meridith's secret is out, it will become the "in" thing. according to my Mother In Law... I am totally "in" with Meridith.

Rick Mercer has summitted his blog about his Xmas in Afgahnstan. He's an amazing writer...not as good as my Stephanie, but pretty darn close. Check out his blog, its on my list of Blogs I Visit. My old friend Robin Bradshaw is over there right now (for the second time), and will be home in June. She had to spend Xmas there this time, and left her hubby and two teenage kids here. That was the hardest for her.

Off to Halifax tomorrow to see my own Dr. McDreamie..... a final check up, where I get to bare it all for one last time, yipee on that one. While in the city, Terry and I are going to visit the only existing Curling Supply store in these parts and I am pretty excited to go there. It will be the only sports equipment store where I will know what most of the stuff is, and what it is used for. I hope to get a new broom head and maybe a new gripper...

I will be on the road early tomorrow morning to Halifax so off I go to bed early..

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

While doing laundry this evening, I remembered for the tenth time this week, that someone, either Michelle, Scott, Stephanie or Sean, left a sweater hanging in the laundry room from there Xmas Frenchies shopping spree. I keep forgetting to ask them which one it belonged to. So, tonight while I was in the laundryroom, I popped over to the computer, jumped onto MSN and asked Stephanie if it was hers or Sean.. I immediately got an answer back. It was so nice. Like being in the room together but not. Stephanie pointed out a quote from a comedian "Mitch Hedburg" as follows."I don't own a cell phone or a pager. I just hang around everyone I know, all the time. If someone needs to get ahold of me they just say, "Mitch," and I say, "what" and turn my head slightly...""MSN is just like that. The first thing I do when I get home from school is check my computer and I always have a tidbit from one of my kids, my sister, my mother-in-law or a friend or two. I love it.

*** I think I have Blogger Block.. I just never know what to write about. I never know what will be interesting to whom... so I will write like I am telling my news to someone very far away and whom I want to keep in touch with. Could be you.

So.. I found a site I am really considering using next Xmas. As my nieces are getting older I am finding it harder and harder to buy them something for Xmas that is meaningful. Gift Certificates have been the easy way out, but not very exciting. Xmas is a time for celebration and giving gifts just feels so good. But, on the other hand, very expensive and very "commercial". Why not do something good for the world, and teach a lesson at the same time.have a look and let me know what you think....

I received a beautiful brooch from my sister for xmas and it was made by my ex-sister in law, Vicki Haddon. She has been creating chainmaille jewelry for a few years and has been selling at various craft fairs in Halifax and New brunswick. The brooch I recieved is stunning and everyone at school has commented on it. She is in the process of developing a website, so as soon as it is up and running I will add it to my favorite sites to visit.

Jill MacD (see her blog at http://www.jillmacd.blogspot.com) has suggested that we have a getaway to the cottage weekend for scrapping with my sister & mother in law. We could have a ball with scrapbooking and the winter relaxation of the cottage... sounds like fun and I will talk to Kim this weekend about it.